Muriel Barbery Quotes

Quotes about:

• People aim for the stars, and they end up like goldfish in a bowl. I wonder if it wouldn't be simpler just to teach children right from the start that life is absurd.

  Muriel Barbery

  Life, Stars, Children

  Muriel Barbery (2013). “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, p.15, Gallic Books

  49 Copy quote

• or the first time in my life I understood the meaning of the word never. And it's really awful. You say the word a hundred times a day but you don't really know what you're saying until you're faced with a real "never again."

  Muriel Barbery

  Real, Awful, Firsts

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August 31, 2006.

  3 Copy quote

• There's so much humanity in a love of trees, so much nostalgia for our first sense of wonder, so much power in just feeling our own insignificance when we are surrounded by nature.

  Muriel Barbery

  Tree, Feelings, Humanity

  45 Copy quote

• So if there is something on the planet that is worth living for, I'd better not miss it, because once you're dead, it's too late for regrets, and if you die by mistake, that is really, really dumb.

  Muriel Barbery

  Regret, Mistake, Missing

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September, 2008.

  3 Copy quote

• Yes, our eyes may perceive, yet they do not observe; they may believe, yet they do not question; they may receive yet they do not search: they are emptied of desire, with neither hunger nor passion.

  Muriel Barbery

  Believe, Passion, Eye

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September, 2008.

  3 Copy quote

• . . . maybe that's what life's all about: there's a lof of despair, but also the odd moments of beauty, where time is no longer the same . . . [like] something suspended . . . an elsewhere . . . an always within a never. Yes, that's is, an always within a never.

  Muriel Barbery

  Despair, Odd, Moments

  12 Copy quote

• Personally I think that grammar is a way to attain beauty.

  Muriel Barbery

  Thinking, Way, Grammar

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September 2, 2013.

  28 Copy quote

• I'll be searching for those moments of always within never. Beauty, in this world." - Paloma

  Muriel Barbery

  World, Moments, This World

  5 Copy quote

• ...we have to surpass ourselves every day, make every day undying. Climb our own personal Everest and do it in such a way that every step is a little bit of eternity. That's what the future is for: to build the present, with real plans, made by living people.

  Muriel Barbery

  Inspirational, Real, People

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August 31, 2006.

  21 Copy quote

• With the exception of love, friendship and the beauty of Art, I don't see much else that can nurture human life.

  Muriel Barbery

  Art, Friendship Love, Human Life

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August 31, 2006.

  20 Copy quote

• Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside she is covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary--and terrible elegant.

  Muriel Barbery

  Real, Simple, Feelings

  74 Copy quote

• Art is emotion without desire.

  Muriel Barbery

  Art, Desire, Emotion

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, 2006.

  3 Copy quote

• If you want to heal Heal others And smile or weep At this very happy reversal of fate

  Muriel Barbery

  Fate, Want, Heal

  Muriel Barbery (2013). “The Elegance of the Hedgehog”, p.229, Gallic Books

  5 Copy quote

• When someone that you love dies..it's like fireworks suddenly burning out in the sky and everything going black.

  Muriel Barbery

  Sky, Black, Burning

  128 Copy quote

• Live, or die: mere consequences of what you have built. What matters is building well. So here we are, I've assigned myself a new obligation. I'm going to stop undoing, deconstructing, I'm going to start building. What matters is what you are doing when you die... I want to be building.

  Muriel Barbery

  What Matters, Want, Building

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September, 2008.

  14 Copy quote

• I thought: pity the poor in spirit who know neither the enchantment nor the beauty of language.

  Muriel Barbery

  Enchantment, Spirit, Language

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, August 31, 2006.

  20 Copy quote

• I'm afraid to go into myself and see what's going on in there.

  Muriel Barbery

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, www.e-reading.club. September 2, 2013.

  3 Copy quote

• But many intelligent people have a sort of bug: they think intelligence is an end in itself. They have one idea in mind: to be intelligent, which is really stupid. And when intelligence takes itself for its own goal, it operates very strangely: the proof that it exists is not to be found in the ingenuity or simplicity of what it produces, but in how obscurely it is expressed.

  Muriel Barbery

  Stupid, Intelligent, Thinking

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September 2, 2013.

  12 Copy quote

• This morning I understand what it means to die: when we disappear, it is the others who die for us, for here I am, lying on a cold pavement and it is not the dying I care about; it has no more meaning this morning that it did yesterday. But never again will I see those I love, and if that is what dying is about then it really is the tragedy they say it is.

  Muriel Barbery

  Morning, Lying, Mean

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• The real ordeal is not leaving those you love but learning to live without those who don't love you.

  Muriel Barbery

  Real, Love You, Leaving

  19 Copy quote

• Don't worry Renee, I won't commit suicide and I won't burn a thing. Because from now on, for you, I'll be searching for those moments of always within never. Beauty, in this world.

  Muriel Barbery

  Suicide, Worry, World

  3 Copy quote

• Talent consists not in inventing shapes but in causing those that were invisible to emerge.

  Muriel Barbery

  Shapes, Talent, Invisible

  16 Copy quote

• ...what I dread more than anything else in this life is noise...silence helps you to go inward..anyone who is interested in something more than just life outside actually needs silence.

  Muriel Barbery

  Silence, Needs, Inward

  16 Copy quote

• We think we can make honey without sharing in the fate of bees, but we are in truth nothing but poor bees, destined to accomplish our task and then die.

  Muriel Barbery

  Fate, Thinking, Honey

  20 Copy quote

• 'Life has meaning and we grown-ups know what it is' is the universal lie that everyone is supposed to believe. Once you become an adult and you realize that's not true, it's too late.

  Muriel Barbery

  Lying, Believe, Adults

  "The Elegance of the Hedgehog". Book by Muriel Barbery, September 2008.

  11 Copy quote

Page 1 of 5

← Prev

1

2

3

4

5

Next →

• facebook
• twitter
• googleplus
• email
• linkedin